Farming is the oldest wealth-creating business known to man. Current scientific strategies to maintain and improve yields in support of high-input agriculture place great emphasis on ‘fail-safe’ techniques for each component of the production sequence with little consideration of the integration of these components in a holistic, systems approach. Research for sustainable agricultural practices requires a far greater emphasis on such an approach than now is fashionable, despite all the rhetoric given politically to sustainability.
The populations of the world's poorest countries have been growing rapidly, increasing the demand for food. At the same time environmental degradation—both natural and man made—has reduced the ability of farmers to grow food in many areas. A lot has been written about the significant contribution due to “Green Revolution” and correctly so, especially considering our failure to control unsustainable population growth. Thanks due to the high yielding varieties we are still self-sufficient in rice and wheat, but for how long? Hardly any one argues that modern agriculture is sustainable. Besides, high input agriculture is increasingly recognized as an environment degrading and not profitable. We now recognize that technical progress may have social and environmental costs we cannot pay. People are now seriously concerned with the protection of the environment and even more about safeguarding their health. As now people realize that by consuming the standard agriculture based food products they are constantly taking in small quantities of poison of various kinds and much of this comes from the chemical pesticides that are used to produce food crops.
Modern farming requires large inputs of chemical fertilizer and stimulants to increase yields from hybrids. However for poor rural marginal farmers the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have made agriculture very expensive and to maintain yields in deteriorating soils increasing doses of modern chemical inputs have had to be used. The time has now come to consider alternative means of sustaining our agriculture and to protect the farmer from low prices, high indebtedness and to ensure that production incentives remain. For small farmers, organic farming is most suitable as considerable vertical integration is possible and appreciable cost savings could be achieved through the recycling of waste and other materials that are available within the system.
A considerable amount of literature is available on the practice of organic farming. Where organic farming is practiced, the farmer will use natural processes to enhance productivity, maintain the nutritive status of the soil to be less dependent on external resources and to keep his costs down. This will strengthen his social and financial position in the society. Organic farming uses natural materials which are the by products of the farm and are environmentally safe, it enhances the nutritive qualities of the soil and it nurtures the organisms in the soils, which are generally destroyed by the use of chemical manures and pesticides, and significantly reduces cost. Therefore at this juncture further work on the development of agriculture biotechnology products based on cow offers immense potential as viable alternative for sustainable agriculture. We have observed serendipitously that when cow urine is applied to seedlings of plants, it enhances overall growth of the plant and protects plants from plant pathogenic fungi. Experiments were undertaken to investigate the significance of these observations. According to Hindu mythology as well as the Indian traditional agricultural practices Vrikshayurveda of Surapala, an ancient Sanskrit text on the science of plant life describes the use of milk in changing the flower color and enhancing fruit taste [N. Sadhale (1996) Surapala's Vrikshayurveda (translated by N. Sadhale) Secunderabad, India: Asian Agri-History Foundation]. Panchgavya, a mixture of five cow products namely, dung, urine, milk, curd and ghee (clarified butter) is used in human medicine, to improve soil health and to protect plants from diseases [S. N. Singh (1971) Krishi-Parashar (translated by S. N. Singh). Varanasi, India: Jai Bharat Press]. Systematic collection and use of urine for fertilization purposes only dates back approximately one century. More than 90% of the total N content in urine is NH4+−N. Also the K is predominantly present in inorganic form. This means that urine is comparable to commercial inorganic N and K fertilizer. The average K content in cattle urine is 0.7%, and when urine is applied to old grass sods strong effects are often seen—effects that have often been confused with an N effect—although it is primarily a K response.
Plants have remained central to every civilization as the primary source of life, due to their numerous applications in daily life. Plants are composed of chemical substances of which some are not directly beneficial for the growth and development of the organism. These secondary compounds have usually been regarded as a part of the plants' defense against plant-feeding insects and other herbivores [G. A. Rosenthal and D. H. Janzen (eds.) 1979 Herbivores: their interaction with secondary plant metabolites. Academic Press, New York]. The pesticidal properties of many plants have been known for a long time and natural pesticides based on plant extracts such as rotenone, nicotine and pyrethrum have been commonly used in pest control. Jacobson has reviewed literature on pesticides from more than 3000 plant species [M. Jacobson and D. G. Crosby (eds.) 1971. Naturally occurring insecticides. Dekker Inc. New York].
Neem (Azadirachta indica) is so far the most promising example of plants currently used for pest control. Neem has remained for numerous purposes in Indian society and is known since ancient times in Sanskrit as “Arishta” meaning health bestower. A summary of how neem products are used as bio-pesticides, the mode of action, effect on pests and natural enemies has been prepared by Schmutterer [H. Schmutterer (1990) Annual Review of Entomology 35: 271-297]. Many agrochemical, therapeutic, and medicinal uses of neem are known [U. P. Singh and D. P. Singh (2002) Journal of Herbal Pharamcotherapy, 2: 13-28]. Disease caused by various microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, and viruses not only damage the plant as a whole but also severely affect quality of the crop. A number of physiological and biochemical alterations in the plants have been reported due to infection of the fungi, bacteria, and viruses [H. Schmutterer. Neem products for integrated pest management.
In The Neem Tree: Source of unique natural products for integrated pest management, medicine and other purposes (Schmutterer, H., Ed.). VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim, Germany. 1997; pp. 367-477]. Furthermore, control measures adopted to combat plant diseases have serious public concern because of the indiscriminate use of the synthetic pesticides. This has resulted in the intensive search to find the alternative methods for disease control and use of plant products in controlling plant pathogens could be a viable alternative [U. P. Singh and B. Prithiviraj (1997) Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 51: 181-194]. Aqueous extracts of various parts of neem, e.g., leaf, bark, seed, pulp and inflorescence have been used successfully in vitro to inhibit the growth of various plant pathogenic fungi [U. P. Singh, R. B. Singh, and H. B. Singh (1980) Mycologia 72: 1077-1093; U. P. Singh and H. B. Singh (1981) Australian Journal of Plant Pathology 10: 66-67].
Like neem, the antibacterial and antifungal properties of garlic (Allium sativum L) against human and plant pathogens are also well known [U. P. Singh, B. Prithviraj, B. K. Sarma, M. Singh and A. B. Ray (2001) Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 39: 310-322]. Oil of garlic in natural and synthetic forms has been reported to suppress the activity of many air and soil-borne fungi [N. B. K. Murthy and S. V. Amonkar (1973) Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 12: 208-209]. Several other workers have observed the antimicrobial activity of extracts of garlic [M. R. Tansey and J. A. Appleton (1975) Mycologia 67: 409-413; H. B. Singh and U. P. Singh (1981) Australian Journal of Plant Pathology 10: 66-67]. Singh et al. [U. P. Singh, K. K. Pathak, M. N. Khare and R. B. Singh (1979) Mycologia 71: 556-564] have shown that even garlic-leaf extract significantly reduced the growth of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri. Padwick causing wilts in gram (Cicer arietinum L.). Inhibition of growth and sclerotium formation in Rhizoctonia solani by garlic oil has also been reported [H. B. Singh and U. P. Singh (1980) Mycologia 72: 1022-1025].
Improving soil fertility is one of the most common tactics to increase agricultural and forest production. Soil organisms, especially bacteria have a key role in determining the rate of organic matter decomposition and thereby nutrient mineralization. These processes determine the rate of nutrient supply to primary producers, largely determining the rate of biomass production and other fundamental ecosystem processes like interactions among different functional groups of organisms that constitute ecosystems [J. D. Bever, K. M. Westover and J. Antonovics (1997) Journal of Ecology 85: 561-573]. Therefore, elucidation of the mechanisms that determine species composition in plant communities is important. Rhizobacteria, once considered passive bystanders of the root environment, are now known to affect plant health, development, and environmental adaptation, both beneficially and detrimentally, and the importance of these bacteria in agriculture is expected to grow [D. J. O'Sullivan and F. O'Gara (1992) Microbiology Review 56: 662-676; R. J. Cook (2000) Annual Review of Phytopathology 38: 95-116]. A variety of mechanisms have been identified as being responsible for such plant growth promoting activity. For example, certain microorganisms indirectly promote plant growth by inhibiting the growth of deleterious microorganisms; or directly enhance plant growth by producing growth hormones; and/or by assisting in the uptake of nutrients by the crops, e.g., phosphorus (P) [C. S. Nautiyal et al., FEMS Microbiology Letters, Volume 182, pp. 291-296 (2000)].
Plant disease suppression mechanisms involved includes antibiotic and siderophore-mediated suppression, and successful root colonization. A clear relationship has been established between the suppression of soil-borne diseases by bacteria and their densities in the rhizosphere [C. T. Bull, D. M. Weller and L. S. Thomashow (1991) Phytopathology 81: 954-959; B. J. Lugtenberg, L. Dekkers, L. and G. V. Bloemberg (2001) Annual Review of Phytopathology 39: 461-490]. We have observed that the effectiveness of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) strains in controlling soil-borne plant pathogens is generally related to their efficiency of root colonization [C. S. Nautiyal (1997) Current Microbiology 33: 1-6; C. S. Nautiyal (1997) Current Microbiology 35: 52-58; C. S. Nautiyal (1997) FEMS Microbiology Ecology 23: 145-158; C. S. Nautiyal (2002) U.S. Pat. No. 6,495,362].
The ecology of rhizosphere competent bacteria is not yet well enough understood to predict the behavior and efficacy of PGPRs in phytosphere (leaf, stem, rhizosphere, and endorhizosphere) colonization and of the existence of crop specificity [C. S. Nautiyal (2000) In Biocontrol potential and its exploitation in sustainable agriculture. Edited by R. K. Upadhyay, K. G. Mukerji, and B. P. Chamola. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. pp. 9-23]. Therefore, these findings suggest that rhizosphere microbial population is an important indicator of plant and soil health [C. S. Nautiyal, J. K Johri and H. B. Singh. Canadian Journal of Microbiology 48: 588-601 (2002)].
Microbial population studies can provide valuable information concerning the impact of introduced seed or soil treatment on indigenous microbial populations. Ideally, microbial population studies should be linked to broader aspects of ecosystem functioning, such as effects on plant growth, plant health, and nutrient cycling [M. N. Schroth and J. G. Hancock (1981) Annual Review of Phytopathology 35: 453-476; C. S. Nautiyal, J. K Johri and H. B. Singh. Canadian Journal of Microbiology 48: 588-601 (2002)]. Phenols have known to occur in all plants investigated so far. Some of them occur constitutively while others are formed in response to pathogen ingress and associated as part of an active defense response in the host [R. L. Nicholson and R. Hammerschmidt (1992) Annual Review of Phytopathology 30: 369-389]. There are also reports on a sudden increase in phenolic concentrations following inoculation with non-pathogenic organisms to the plants.
Direct reduction in fungal growth due to changes in phenolics in the tomato in response to inoculation with Verticillium albo-atrum is available in literature [M. A. Bernards and B. E. Ellis (1989) Journal of Plant Physiology 135: 21-26]. Seed bacterization with rhizobacteria results in greater accumulation of phenolic compounds or mediated induced systemic resistance (ISR) in hosts offer a practical way of immunizing plants against pathogen ingress [G. Wei, J. W. Klopper and S. Tazun (1991) Phytopathology 81: 1508-1512]. Recently we have reported rhizobacteria elicited alterations in phenolics of chickpea infected by Sclerotium rolfsii [B. K. Sarma, D. P. Singh, S. Mehta, H. B. Singh and U. P. Singh (2002) Journal of Phytopathology 150: 277-282].
Recently, effectiveness of cow's milk against zucchini squash (Cucurbita pepo) powdery mildew (Sphaerotheca fulginea) has been demonstrated in greenhouse conditions [W. Bettiol (1999) Crop Protection 18:489-492]. Cow milk may have more than one mode of action in controlling zucchini squash powdery mildew. Fresh milk may have a direct effect against S. fulginea due to its germicidal properties [A. J. Salle (1954) Fundamental principles of bacteriology. New York: McGraw-Hill]. Milk contains several salts and amino acids. These substances have been shown to be effective in controlling powdery mildew and other diseases [A. J. Salle (1954) Fundamental principles of bacteriology. New York: McGraw-Hill]. Several authors have shown that sodium bicarbonate, oxalate, dibasic or tribasic potassium phosphate, and other salts and amino acids have been efficient in the induction of systematic resistance [A. J. Salle (1954) Fundamental principles of bacteriology. New York: McGraw-Hill; van Andel (1966) Annual Review of Phytopathology 4:349-368; M. Reuveni, V. Agapov, R. Reuveni (1995) Plant Pathology 44:31-39].
India is one of the few countries in world, which has contributed richly to the International livestock gene pool and improvement of animal population in world. Cattle and buffalo contribute nearly 15% of the gross national income. The country possesses 23% of world bovine population. Sahiwal is one of the most popular breeds of cow of the subcontinent. It has been exported to Sri Lanka, Kenya and many countries in Latin America and West Indies where a new breed called Jamaica Hope has been evolved out of Sahiwal and Jersey crossbreeds [P. N. Bhat, Handbook of Animal Husbandry, Directorate of Publication and Information on Agriculture, Krishi Anusandhan Bhawan, Pusa, New Delhi, India (1997)]. Thus the traditional information about the use of cow urine an important bio matter which can be used methodically to get better result in controlling plant pathogenic fungi and promoting plant growth should not be ignored.
While work on use of urine for promoting plant growth and controlling plant pathogenic fungi has been conducted in past there has been no clear indication heretofore that any detailed study has been conducted to demonstrate that urine from cow might act as stimulator of the accumulation of nutrients in the plant biomass, proliferation of plant growth promoting, phosphate solubilizing, abiotic stress tolerant and antagonists towards plant pathogenic fungi in the rhizosphere of plants, and enhances the total phenolic contents of the plants, per se. Nevertheless, a cow urine-mediated promotion of plant growth and controlling plant pathogenic fungi, if one were discovered, could find immediate application, e.g., in soils affected by phytopathogens, poor nutrient availability in a desired improvement in crop development. We have found by direct comparison on a variety of plant types that the unique combination of selected plants with cow urine is effective in the enhancement of plant growth and soil health.
The present invention relates to usage of urine from cow which acts as plant and soil health enhancer and application thereof for promoting plant growth and controlling plant pathogenic fungi, said composition comprising urine, neem and garlic, individually or in all possible combinations, the treatment showing stimulation of the accumulation of nutrients in the plant biomass, proliferation of plant growth promoting, phosphate solubilizing, abiotic stress tolerant and antagonists towards plant pathogenic fungi in the rhizosphere of plants, and enhances the total phenolic contents of the plants; and a method for producing the composition.